Conventional fishing devices typically comprise either a simple hand held reel or a reel attached to a fishing rod. Hand held reels require some skill to cast effectively with as the reel must be held at a particular orientation to allow the fishing line to unspool freely from the reel. Manual retrieval of the line is also difficult, often resulting in tangling of the line. Fishing rods, whilst eliminating some of the difficulties associated with casting and retrieval using hand held reels are typically bulky. Both hand held reels and fishing rods usually require constant vigilance and need to be hand held whilst fishing.